Friendly bacteria for your bed

Bekaert Textiles has launched Purotex, a environmentally friendly, microencapsulation treatment for mattress ticking designed to help create a clean and healthy sleep environment.

The patented treatment, which meets the Ökotex 100, class 1 standard, is applied during the textile production process with probiotic micro-organisms used to saturate the bacterial capacity of the textile, reducing the risk of dust mite allergen development and the growth of moulds and harmful bacteria.

Bekaert Textiles, which was honoured with an award for intelligent material and design at the recent Interzum trade show in Cologne, stresses that Purotex is not a chemical treatment and its results are achieved in an entirely natural way. The microflora employed consists of friendly micro-organisms that are not genetically modified and are guaranteed non-toxic.

The micro-organisms are encapsulated in their spore form, and are released by friction between the sleeper’s body and the mattress. During this germination process they absorb moisture and eat up the food material present in the fabric, including flakes of skin, dead bacteria and dust mite excretions.

The friendly bacteria grow very rapidly, multiplying by a factor of 100 in a period of 24 hours. In this way they prevent dust mites getting enough food and moisture to feel comfortable. Moulds are also denied a chance to develop and the mass presence of the friendly bacteria prevents harmful or pathogenic bacteria from gaining a foothold in the ticking material.

As a favourable side effect, Purotex also neutralises unpleasant odours in the mattress. Bekaert also claims that the population of friendly bacteria is also self-regulating – the more dust mites there are in the material, the more the friendly bacteria multiply. If there is no more food for them, about 25% of the bacteria revert to spore form. The cycle then repeats itself as often as necessary.

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Source:ecotextile.com